Preparation and surface properties of mesoporous silica particles modified with poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) as a potential adsorbent for bilirubin removal Alexander Timin a, * , Evgeniy Rumyantsev a , Sergey N. Lanin b , Sveta A. Rychkova b , Sabir S. Guseynov c , Alexey V. Solomonov a , Elena V. Antina c a Inorganic Chemistry Department, Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology (ISUCT), 7, Sheremetevsky prosp., 153000 Ivanovo, Russian Federation b Chemistry Department, Physical Chemistry Division, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-3 Leninskie Gory, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation c Krestov Institute of Solution Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, 153000 Ivanovo, Russian Federation highlights graphical abstract  PVP functionalized silicas were syn- thesized via solegel method.  Modification of silica by PVP leads to the formation of mesoporous structure.  PVP functionalized mesoporous sil- icas demonstrate good adsorption properties for bilirubin removal. article info Article history: Received 5 March 2014 Received in revised form 27 May 2014 Accepted 3 June 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Biomaterials Polymers Surfaces Ceramics Solegel growth Adsorption abstract The surface of silica particles was modified with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) through solegel process. The different experimental techniques, i.e., thermogravimetric analysis (TGA and DTG), nitrogen adsorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser diffraction analysis (LDA), fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR) are used to characterize the pure non-functionalized and functionalized silicas containing different amount of PVP. It was shown that PVP-modified silica samples have well developed porous structure; the values of specific surface area for PVP-modified silicas are in the range of 140 e264 m 2 g 1 . While the non-functionalized silica shows the low surface area (S BET ¼ 40 m 2 g 1 ). The BJH analysis showed that PVP can be used as an effective agent to increase an average pore size and total pore volume. The results indicate that PVP functionalized silicas show a potential as effective adsorbents for bilirubin removal compared to other available adsorbents. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Nowadays, the great potentialities of silica gel were demon- strated in numerous areas including composite materials, pho- tonics, thermal insulators, sensors, catalysis, adsorption process, medical diagnostics, and immunoassays [1e4]. Functionalization of * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ7 910 669 36 43. E-mail addresses: a_timin@mail.ru (A. Timin), evr@isuct.ru (E. Rumyantsev), SNLanin@phys.chem.msu.ru (S.N. Lanin). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Chemistry and Physics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matchemphys http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2014.06.006 0254-0584/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Materials Chemistry and Physics xxx (2014) 1e11 Please cite this article in press as: A. Timin, et al., Preparation and surface properties of mesoporous silica particles modified with poly(N-vinyl- 2-pyrrolidone) as a potential adsorbent for bilirubin removal, Materials Chemistry and Physics (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.matchemphys.2014.06.006